Numerous lawmakers throughout the state of Wisconsin will be up for recall this spring and summer. In about 60 days, two more names may—somehow—be added to that list.
Last week, I wrote an opinion piece about how I believed that a proposed mining bill in the state Senate, one that could have created nearly 700 permanent jobs in northern Wisconsin, was ultimately a good idea despite environmental worries and regulations. While I usually lean towards the environmental impact of pending legislative issues, I could not help but side with Wisconsin’s GOP on this issue and support the prospect of creating the $1.5 billion iron ore mine backed by mining company Gogebic Taconite. After all, Gogebic Taconite had already invested more than $3 million into the proposed mine.
Yet, while it seems repetitive to continue writing about this issue, I was simply floored when I learned two Wisconsin residents decided to file paperwork earlier this week to begin exploring the recall of both state Sen. Bob Jauch, D-Poplar, and state Sen. Dale Schultz, R-Richland Center.
As you may remember, Schultz was the lone dissenting Republican decided to side with Senate Democrats. The bill’s dissidents argued the bill did not address environmental concerns and other regulations that stood in the way of the proposed mining legislation.
In order to initiate these next two recall elections, petitioners would need to gather 15,270 signatures to begin the recall process against Jauch, and they would need to get 14,545 signatures to trigger a recall against Schultz.
Interestingly enough, the two Wisconsin citizens who filed the recall paperwork earlier this week are affiliated with the Citizens For Responsible Government Network, a grassroots network composed of three separate organizations that has an arguably conservative agenda.
But that’s not the point.
Are all of these countless recall attempts anything more than a diversion from the true problems facing the state of Wisconsin? I would like to ask many of the supporters for both this and other recall elections a single question: Why? Why is it necessary to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to remove elected politicians that have not committed ethical violations?
I can understand the frustration with politicians and the political process in general. It is completely understandable Wisconsin residents are fed up with politicians playing party politics, ignoring their constituents and ultimately pandering to one political base that does not represent the state as a whole.
All the while, I believe the citizens of Wisconsin must understand the political process is a deliberately slow process for a reason. The state of Wisconsin lost an opportunity when Gogebic Taconite decided to pull out of Wisconsin, with the citizens of northern Wisconsin taking the worst hit. However, I implore Wisconsin residents to realize there will be other economic opportunities in the future. And although the state’s legislative session may have recently ended, deciding that it is a good idea to recall two senators because of their stance on a political issue is completely absurd and unnecessary. It does not create more jobs, and it only creates a political environment that makes it impossible to make any progress in the state.
There is a lot of unnecessary anger running through the bloodstreams of Wisconsin residents, and that anger is far from beneficial. It is that type of anger that is psychologically damning to democracy.
This is not a matter of one particular political party. Instead, there should be a finger pointed at the angry dissenters who choose to sidestep the political process altogether, resorting to selfish, idling actions that are ultimately not representing and even hurting the Wisconsin people.
Ethan Safran is a freshman with an undeclared major. Please send all feedback to opinion@dailycardinal.com.
